Appreciation for Prince's epic body of music is at an all time high, and music marketplace Discogs has just announced that a rare copy of Prince's "The Black Album" has sold for $15,000.
Discogs is an online marketplace for hardcore record collectors. Before today's Prince sale, the most money somebody paid for a record off of the site was a rare copy of David Bowie's self titled album, which later received a wider re-release as "Space Oddity."
Before you go and plan your retirement around the sale of "The Black Album" that you have in your record collection, take note that this isn't a regular copy of the album. While "The Black Album" eventually received a wide release in 1994, the album was originally planned to come in 1987, but was shelved by Prince at the last minute. A few promo copies of the 1987 pressing of "The Black Album" managed to get in the hands of club DJs before Prince changed his mind, and now the few surviving copies of that version of the record are worth thousands to collectors.
Between this and the previous, record holding Bowie sale, it seems like the best way to increase the value of a record is for the artist to pass away. It's tragic and macabre, but anything that motivates people to seek out Prince's music can't be completely bad.
By Michael Lacerna for RAPstation.com
